That’s it from me, Samantha Lock, for today’s Covid blog.

Please join me on our latest live feed here where I’ll be focusing a little more on the coronavirus crisis across Asia, Australia and the Pacific.

You can also keep up with the top headlines here.

New Zealand’s prime minister Jacinda Ardern has said restrictions will be tightened if there is a community transmission of Omicron.

Ardern made the remarks during a press conference on Thursday in which she provided an update on the country’s traffic light system.

When Omicron enters the community behind the border, the whole country will move into red within 24 to 48 hours, stuff.co reports.

The prime minister previously told her MPs that Omicron is a “different foe” and will result in case numbers not seen in New Zealand before. However, she added that the variant “is not insurmountable” and long lockdowns should not be needed.

Two new Omicron cases have been Reported in Auckland.

Testing in New Zealand for Covid will be free, and rapid antigen tests will be used more widely, Ardern added.

Moving across to Europe, Austria has also recorded a record daily rise in Covid infections with 27,641 cases reported in the past 24 hours, according to data from the Austrian Agency for Health (AGES).

It marks an incident rate of 1,439 per 100,000 of the population.

Mexico is also reporting a record daily increase of more than 60,000 new confirmed Covid-19 cases, health ministry data showed on Wednesday, as the country steps up testing for the virus.

In the past 24 hours, more than 150,000 test results were logged, the ministry’s data showed, far more than Mexico was registering at the start of the month.

With 60,552 new infections, the number of overall cases since the pandemic began increased to 4,495,310 while 323 more deaths brought the overall death toll to 302,112.

Hello it’s Samantha Lock back with you on the blog as we unpack all the latest Covid developments from across the world.

I’ll be reporting to you from Sydney and my colleagues from London will take over a little later in the day.

Here’s a snapshot of how Covid is unfolding across Australia.

The NSW Covid numbers are in and sadly another 25 Covid positive people in the state have died, with 30,825 new infections recorded.

NSW has also recorded a slight reduction in the number of people hospitalised, with 2,781 patients now in Covid wards, compared with 2,850 yesterday.

Victoria’s number are also in and sadly 15 more people with Covid-19 have died with 21,966 new infections recorded. There are now 1,206 hospitalisations, an increase from yesterday’s 1,152.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration has just granted provisional approval to two oral Covid-19 treatments, Paxlovid (nirmatrelvir + ritonavir) and Lagevrio (molnupiravir).

The interval for a booster shot will be reduced to three months in Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia and the ACT amid unprecedented strain on hospitals as Omicron cases surge.

Meanwhile, Alexander Zverev believes some more players at the Australian Open may have Covid-19 but they may have gone undetected because they weren’t tested, AAP reports.

The US government will make 400m non-surgical N95 masks from its strategic national stockpile available for free to the public starting next week, the White House said.

The masks will be available in high street pharmacies such as CVS and Walgreens. It’s part of an effort to stamp out the rise of the Omicron variant across the nation.

Health experts recommend an N95, rather than a cloth mask, to stop the spread of the highly-mutated Omicron variant.

Children aged 5-11 in Malaysia will be vaccinated starting February, authorities said.

The dosage for children in this age bracket is lower, around one-third the dosage given to over-12s, and only the Pfizer-BioNTech will be used following evidence it’s safe and effective.

Clinical trials found that the risk of symptomatic infection in vaccinated children is reduced by 90%, the country’s vaccine committee said in a statement. (The decision to vaccinate this age bracket was already taken on 6 January.)

Meanwhile, Malaysia reported 3,245 new Covid cases in the past 24 hours, the New Straits Times reports, largely flat on the 3,270 cases on Wednesday two weeks ago.

A further 9 new Covid-related deaths were announced, halving the 18 reported two weeks ago today and climbing the national death toll to 31,818, the 29th highest worldwide.

More on the fallout from UK health secretary Sajid Javid’s confirmation earlier today that England will scrap virtually all Covid restrictions, which drew scorn from experts.

Health professionals questioned the move:

Saffron Cordery, the deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents NHS trusts, pointed to the high number of Covid-19 patients in hospital “at a time when the NHS is already at full stretch and contending with the toughest winter on record”, and some regions were still seeing increased infection numbers.

Pat Cullen, the general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, said ministers would “regret sending the wrong signal to the public for political expediency”.

Likewise, unions expressed concern:

Unison, the UK’s largest health union, warned that ditching plan B “in one fell swoop” risked jeopardising progress made. Christina McAnea, the union’s general secretary, said: “Rather than allowing a free-for-all, ministers should be urging caution and encouraging continued mask-wearing on transport, in public places and in schools, where it can still make a real difference.”

Mary Bousted, the joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said: “While the trend amongst secondary aged children is down, it is however uncertain, due to the short time schools have been back since the Christmas holidays, that this trend will continue. Such uncertainty could lead to a pronounced risk of increased disruption with children and staff having to isolate.”

Read The Guardian’s full story here.

Hana Horka, a Czech folk singer, died on Sunday after deliberately exposing herself to Covid, her family said.

Horka, 57, wanted to prove recovery from Covid so she could obtain a health pass to visit venues.

Horka, vocalist for the band Asonance, voluntarily exposed herself to the virus when her vaccinated husband and son caught it before Christmas, her son Jan Rek told public radio iRozhlas.cz. “She decided to continue to live normally with us and preferred to catch the disease than to get vaccinated,” Rek said.

Rek blamed the death on a local anti-vaccine movement, saying its leaders had “blood on their hands”. Read the full story here.

France detected 436,167 new Covid cases on Wednesday, a dramatic 117% jump from the already-high 202,293 new cases recorded on Wednesday three weeks ago.

It comes after France on Tuesday reported its record daily tally for the pandemic, at 464,76 infections, edging close to half a million. It keeps French Covid infections above 400,000 for the second day in a row.

A further 231 people died from Covid-related causes in French hospitals, Reuters reports.

Earlier this month French President Emmanuel Macron’s plans for a vaccine passports were approved by parliament, part of a strategy he characterised as intended to suppress Omicron’s spread and “piss off” unvaccinated people.

Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic is the controlling shareholder in a Danish biotech firm aiming to develop a Covid treatment that doesn’t involve vaccination.

The tennis world No 1, who was deported from Australia this week after the government canceled his visa over his unvaccinated status, bought an 80% stake in QuantBioRes in June 2020.

My colleague Mark Sweney has further details (full story here):

QuantBioRes has about 11 researchers working in Denmark, Australia and Slovenia, according to Loncarevic, who stressed the company is working on a treatment, not a vaccine. The company’s website says that it started developing a “deactivation mechanism” for Covid-19 in July 2020.

Djokovic, who may also be barred from defending his French Open title in Roland Garros in May after the French government ruled on Monday that all athletes will have to be vaccinated in order to attend and compete in sporting events, acquired his stake in the company in June 2020.

The company is developing a peptide, which inhibits the coronavirus from infecting the human cell, expects to launch clinical trials in Britain this summer, added Loncarevic.

In the US, Starbucks has suspended the requirement for its 220,000 employees to be vaccinated or regularly tested after a Supreme Court ruling. Reuters reports the details:

The coffee giant had said earlier this month it would require its around 220,000 US employees to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 or undergo weekly testing.

The US Supreme Court last week struck down Joe Biden administration’s vaccination-or-testing mandate for large businesses, ruling that the policy overstepped executive authority.

“We respect the court’s ruling and will comply,” Starbucks chief operating officer John Culver wrote in a memo to workers.

The vast majority of Starbucks employees are vaccinated, Culver added.

UK health secretary Sajid Javid confirmed previous reports (see earlier post) that England will revert back to Plan A measures, departing from Omicron-prompted Plan B restrictions.

The changes include an end to mandatory face masks and Covid passports from next Thursday, and the immediate suspension of ‘work from home’ guidance. For the full story follow our UK live blog here.

Ukraine detected 12,815 new Covid infections in the past 24 hours, a 172% jump on the 4,711 new cases on Wednesday two weeks ago.

The country’s most recent wave peaked in late-October and early-November. But Omicron is driving a new uptick in cases.

A further 163 people died from Covid-related causes, local media Ukrinform reports, 45% down on the 297 people who died on the same day two weeks ago.

It comes after Ukraine received almost 1m doses of the Pfizer Covid vaccine from the US and expects 200,000 Sinovac vaccine doses from China.

Ahead of the imminent UK Covid press conference (which you can follow live here), let’s take a look at today’s Covid figures in context. New daily cases, although remaining high at 108,069, appear to have spiked after the dramatic rise in recent weeks.

Hospitalisations, which lag cases, have also jumped, but significantly less than last year.

It’s the same story with deaths, climbing recently but not as significantly as this time last year. The UK reported that a further 359 people died from Covid-related reasons in the past 24 hours.

This is Jem Bartholomew taking charge of the blog from here on out. Do get in touch with tips and stories from around the world. Drop me an email or message me on Twitter, it’s always great to from readers.

The staffing crisis in social care is getting worse and worse, data from the Care Quality Commission regulator has shown.

Vacancy rates have almost doubled since April and now stand at 11% in England. That figure does not include the tens of thousands of care workers off with Covid.

The south of the country is worse affected than the north and the crisis is raising concerns about standards of care and widespread rationing of services.

A typical care home in London with 100 staff now has at least 12 vacancies.

The National Care Forum, which gathers data from its own survey, estimates the problem is worse with an 18% vacancy rate.

The US actor John Malkovich was turned away from a luxury hotel in Venice last week after failing to present a valid Covid vaccination pass, Italian news media reported Wednesday.

Local newspaper Il Gazzettino reported that the theatre and film actor, star of “Dangerous Liaisons” and “Being John Malkovich”, was in Venice for two days of filming for US television series “Ripley”.

Because his mandatory vaccination card had expired, Malkovich was denied entry to his luxury suite at the Hotel Danieli overlooking the Grand Canal, the paper wrote.

He was instead housed in private lodgings, it said.

Contacted by phone, the hotel would not confirm reports due to privacy concerns.

Italian news agency ANSA confirmed the report, citing sources within the production.

Under Italian law, only those who show proof of full vaccination or recovery from Covid can access public spaces like hotels, restaurants, bars and other venues, as well as public transport.

What does England moving to Plan A mean? My colleague Rachel Hall has this explainer:

A woman acting as a “guerrilla journalist” when she filmed inside a hospital in an attempt to prove her belief that lockdown measures were disproportionate has been convicted of a public order offence.

Debbie Hicks, 47, a former teacher and psychologist, filmed twice at the Gloucestershire Royal hospital in Gloucester in December 2020 and told staff who challenged her she could do what she wanted as she paid her taxes.

Hicks, from Stroud, argued that she was exercising her right to freedom of expression and trying to expose what she believed was a false government narrative that hospitals were full of patients with Covid.

But finding her guilty of using threatening words or behaviour likely to cause harassment, the district judge Nicholas Wattam said staff had the right to work without being molested.

Read the full story here: Covid denier fined for filming in Gloucester hospital

German police have said they are currently investigating more than 12,000 cases of suspected forged vaccine passes.

Since December, when tighter restrictions were introduced in an effort to slow the spread of the Omicron variant, the number of reported forgeries has soared, police said.

In most public places in Germany the public now have to prove a 2G status – that they are double vaccinated or recovered – and more recently 2G +, which represents either an official lateral flow test result or a booster shot.

The measures do not apply to essential services such as medical practices, supermarkets and other grocery stores, whilst on public transport, 3G rules apply (according to which people have to prove they have been double vaccinated, have recovered or have a negative test result).

The demand for forged vaccine passes has increased as rules have tightened, the federal police department told the news agency DPA.

Forgeries have been particularly high in the southern state of Bavaria, where 4000 cases are active, and the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia, where police are investigating more than 3500 cases. The government in Munich has said it believes the real number is likely to be considerably higher.

Fake vaccines are also an issue in Germany, as highlighted following raids last week carried out at 100 addresses across four states, after it was discovered that a doctor in Bavaria had administered placebo vaccines – consisting of a saline solution – to his patients.

Vaccine sceptics from across the country reportedly travelled to his practice to receive the jabs and the accompanying vaccine certificate. Among the jabbed were also people who had thought they had received a genuine vaccine, discovering only through an antibody test offered by the local health authorities that that was not the case.

The doctor has been temporarily suspended by medical authorities, pending a criminal investigation.

One of the people who unwittingly received the placebo vaccine, a 50-year-old woman who lives with her 85-year old mother, told the tabloid newspaper Bild: “I was flabbergasted when I found out. I wanted BioNTech, but I got saline solution instead.”

She said the doctor had inoculated her in her right buttock, stating at the same time: “Be careful – winter’s coming”.

NHS and health leaders reacted with caution to the announcement that Plan B measures are to be scrapped in England, highlighting that with about 20,000 patients still in hospital with Covid, the current Omicron wave “isn’t over”, and warning that there could be “a second Omicron surge”.

Some accused ministers of “sending the wrong signal to the public” for political expediency, and said it was “very premature” to conclude the threat from Omicron had subsided.

Hospitals in some areas have also not yet hit predicted peak Covid admission levels, NHS leaders said.

Saffron Cordery, the deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents NHS hospital, mental health, community and ambulance services, said:

Trust leaders have been encouraged that the number of people catching Covid-19 is now falling nationally, and the number of Covid-19 patients in hospital is stabilising.

However, there are still nearly 20,000 Covid-19 patients in hospital, at a time when the NHS is already at full stretch and contending with the toughest winter on record. There are also regional variations in the number of Covid-19 hospitalisations, with the numbers increasing in the North East and Yorkshire, while decreasing in London. This means that some trusts tell us they are expecting their peak later this week, or possibly early next.

Cordery said it was “important” to recognise “that this surge isn’t over” and that “the health service is still operating under extremely challenging circumstances”.

She added:

The government must continue to examine the evidence closely and make calculations based on the future level of risk, including of a second Omicron surge.

Pat Cullen, the Royal College of Nursing’s general secretary and chief executive, said:

The prime minister’s decision to loosen the restrictions may have relieved the pressure from his backbenchers but will do nothing to relieve the pressure on the NHS.

Cullen said the country could not rely on vaccines alone when the situation is “still so precariously balanced”.

She added:

Time will tell whether dropping other measures when the pressure on health and social care services remains unrelenting was wise – particularly when thousands of unvaccinated nursing staff are facing the sack.

Ministers should adopt a cautious approach. The government will regret sending the wrong signal to the public for political expediency.

With so many Covid-19 patients still in hospital, it would be very premature to conclude this wave is over. That is not what our members are telling us.

Catherine Noakes, professor of environmental engineering for buildings at the University of Leeds, and a member of Sage appears to be furious with the relaxation of Covid restrictions in England.

In a couple of tweets following Boris Johnnson’s announcement, she said:

Right, okay…erm not sure we’re following the science… it’s still around, still at 1 in 20 people, still seriously infectious, still pretty unpleasant to catch. I’d keep ventilating and wearing masks folks

I see we’re also back to “face coverings for people you don’t normally meet” FFS, YOU CAN CATCH IT FROM A PERSON YOU KNOW

Teaching unions expressed concern about the sudden lifting of Covid restrictions, in particular the requirement to wear face masks in classrooms, warning that many head teachers in England are still seeing widespread disruption to education due to Covid.

Dr Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said:

Schools and colleges are still feeling the impact of Covid. The latest ONS infection survey update shows 1 in 10 primary age pupils have Covid.

While the trend amongst secondary aged children is down it is however uncertain, due to the short time schools have been back since the Christmas holidays, that this trend will continue. Such uncertainty could lead to a pronounced risk of increased disruption with children and staff having to isolate.

The government is due to publish figures for Covid-related absence in schools next week. “The danger is we lift restrictions too quickly before the effects of returning to school are clear,” said Bousted.

This will result in more education disruption which is extremely worrying particularly for pupils taking national exams this year whose education has been so badly disrupted already.

There was also scepticism that the Covid announcements may